#do you know what snowmelt is? it's where all the snow melts in the spring & then fucking floods everything

[pa-pa-plasma]

i feel like a lot of people ignore the fact that in a lot of places, bicycling just. cannot be done for half the year, & that's why public transport being good is important. i cannot bike in 5 feet of snow & ice or in 40c heat. i can't even walk in that, unless i have the energy to snowshoe or a bucket of ice water to chug.

"but I can do it!" good for you. unfortunately i live in Berk (snowing for 9 months of the year & hailing the other 3) & cannot unless i want to die. also disabled people exist. & children. & people who live in a place where everything is no closer than 30 minutes away, & 30 minutes in -30c can kill you if you can't afford a good pair of boots & a good coat. i may have bike paths but the river floods past them every year. what do i do then? bike on the highway?? just let me take the train

#people who live in places where the weather is always nice (aka not trying to kill you 75% of the time): you are an outlier #where i live the temperatures range from -30c to +35c give or take. snow hail thunderstorms tornadoes all that shit too #''biking is so fun! even when it's raining!'' dude ima be real with you. it is ice raining. i do not want to be coated in wet ice #do you know what snowmelt is? it's where all the snow melts in the spring & then fucking floods everything #it's freezing dirty water & it kills people because people always underestimate The River #i am not riding my bike through that. it's always colder & deeper than you think & there is always a current even if you can't see it #''but it's not like it's the ocean'' dude. water aint fucking around salt or no #you may look at The River & think ''that's just a lake. seems calm & nice'' but you'd be wrong & you would die from your foolishness #this shit is connected to the Great Lakes. those fuckers are fresh water seas. i do not fuck with that #it's great you live in a place where biking all year round is feasible. but i cannot do that even if i wanted to #''but what if the weather's been nice lately'' then you'd be falling for fool's spring #where it looks like it's getting warmer & then the temperature drops & it snows a whole bunch again #& then it warms up & then it snows again. repeat until like May #we just want good public transport okay i get that exercise is good but i'd rather not risk my extremities for it thank you

[fanarchoslashivist]

Enta Winèk

(When it snows)

2. [Jack & Bunny or Jack/Bunny] Jack accidentally causes another snowstorm on Easter. Bunny finds him hours later, hiding, and has to assure him that he's not angry to get Jack to stop panicking.

@rotgsecretsanta

*~*

The tree seemed to float above the ground… the roots heavily exposed, as only excessive erosion could do, a tangled mess of growth that allowed for pockets of space between where animals had made their burrows and snow had collected. The darkness of those spaces combined with the brightness of the snow gave it the strange appearance of flight. Like it was completely uprooted and only touched down to the earth for a moment to rest before returning to the skies.

There were many small streams that formed among the snow melt leading up to the tree, now stalled and frozen like glass sculptures carefully laid against the earth. It was rather inconspicuous that such shiny veins would all spillover and into the roots of the tree, but not come out again on the other side.

It had taken him hours, endless driven running pushed on by the wind and his own blind instincts. Finally it seemed his search would end, though the large winter dormant tree was not what he would have expected, if he had had the presence of mind to really expect anything of his destination beyond desperation.

“Jack?” His voice was rough, overused from the calling he’d been doing all morning, it tumbled out of him like dry crumbling soil tilled and turned too often. He tried to kneel carefully, but the exhaustion pulled him to his knees and he had to use his hands to brace against the opening of the crevice before him. The snow cushioned him at least, so that his heaving collapse was near silent under his rasping breaths.

“Jack, I know you’re there.” He could smell him, that woodfire smoke that comforted through the cold.

The hole was barely wide enough to fit his head, he certainly wouldn’t be able to crawl down inside it if Jack didn’t respond, but he was prepared to go digging if it meant reaching him. The little limestone cave entrance was one of many openings that the snowmelt traveled through each spring, though Bunny couldn’t get a grasp of exactly how deep down it went or how wide it would be further in, even if he could somehow get through the webbing of roots.

Jack had somehow managed it, squeezing down into the dark, and as Bunny’s eyes adjusted to the dim after so many hours in the blinding glint of sun on snow he could make out the shape of shadow against shadow not too far in.

It shifted.

“Go away”. Somehow it sounded even rougher than his and oh how he wanted to hold onto that slinking circling anger and frustration that preyed upon worry and fear, but Jack had been crying, and what could he do against that?

“C’mon Snowflake, we both know I’m not going anywhere.”

Jack looked up at him, wide red raw eyes and absolutely covered in mud. It made for a pitiful picture, and Bunny had the very clear idea of how Jack had managed to claw his way into this excuse of a sinkhole.

“You know the Warren’s got more than enough holes, if you’re that desperate to bury yourself alive. No need t'go searching through the understory.” Jack huffed and shifted away, little bits of grit crumbling around him as his shoulders squished against the walls, hugging his knees tighter to his chest. “Warmer too, an the mud’s more colorful. Not anything against brown, but it does blend a bit with your skin tone, you could use something that pops.”

This time Jack clearly laughed, choked and nasally and suffocated in the wet filthy arms of his hoodie, but it was something.

Bunny let the silence stretch after that, let Jack’s overworking mind spin as it wanted.

“You’re not mad?”

He was livid.

But he also had several millennia to learn how to control his temper, as much as he let that control go these days, and he knew how to approach a wounded animal.

Was it unfair that all his hard work could be destroyed in moments and he was the one having to comfort the culprit? Yes. But Jack wouldn’t have done this without reason, and finding him shoved into a literal hole in the ground hiding from who knew what, and oh how he hoped it wasn’t from him, he wasn’t going to be venting his anger anytime soon.

"I think there's time enough later for me to be mad." He answered, "right now I'm more interested in getting you out of this hole and cleaned up."

Jack took a moment, then peeked back up at him, Bunny tried to make his face look reassuring. It must have worked, because Jack unfolded his arms and reached up, grabbing at the walls around him to crawl out.

Or wiggle out. Bunny scooted back some to give him flailing room as he tried to get his feet under him after managing a fetal position in a space so small. He'd offer a helping hand, but he didn’t think it wise to go pulling at something so perfectly lodged into tight places without knowing what might catch where.

And okay, petty of him, but the little grunts of frustrated effort soothed his anger a little. Jack earned himself a, momentary, reprieve from the dressing down Bunny had waiting for him, but he wasn't above watching him struggle out of the literal hole he dug himself.

The fucking brat.

The winds were trying desperately to push the storm off the coast, shove it out to sea where it could do less damage, but there was no helping the scale of the snow dropped along the way. The ground was still frozen in too many places for all the runoff to sink in. It was no doubt going to be a muddy and miserable few days going forward.  

#e. aster bunnymund #Jack Frost #bunnymund #rotg #rotgsecretsanta2021 #lenape!jack

[artistictiliqua]

crossing a line (1/2)

Wrote another little ficlet for the ESP Dib AU! I mean I’m supposed to be working on DP Spirit AU chapters but I got distracted haha :’D There’s gonna be a second part dw!

Zim Fucks Up: The Musical

<1500 words

ESP Dib AU

ZADE/ZADF

Warnings: blood/injury, language

Illustrated ficlet

Please DO NOT tag as ZAD//R thanks!

ESP DIB AU MASTERPOST

It was supposed to be a simple test.

That’s all; a mere test of the Dib’s incredible, mysterious power which he kept hidden from his father, his peers, and every other creature on Earth’s filthy surface. And this has baffled Zim to no end-- in the Irken Armada, flaunting one’s abilities and skills is commonplace, even considered an expectation in social situations. So to Zim, the mere notion that any creature would keep an advantage such as Dib’s hidden is utterly inconceivable.

It simply doesn’t make any sense, and the Irken is certain that the unknown extent of the Dib’s abilities would drive him mad. Thus, as Zim has always done, he threw his entire being into finding a solution, searching for any opportunity to study the Earth-smeet’s power.

Whether by shooting a spitball at the boy in class, tossing the revolting Skool-food aggressively at Dib, or even throwing rocks at him as he passed, the child managed to either dodge the randomized projectiles or redirect them too quickly for even Zim’s enhanced ocular implants to pick up on. Hell, he even asked Dib directly if he could study his abilities and the filthy brat shrank back in horror before slamming his door shut! 

Zim convinced himself that the only way he could ‘coax’ the boy into showcasing his awe-inspiring telekinesis was by putting him in a situation he could not escape without using it. 

Creating that situation proved easier than Zim anticipated.

***

“It seems I’ve bested you once again, Dib-stink!” Zim crows triumphantly, baring his teeth in a savage grin, “Oh, the wonderful experiments I have planned-- perhaps I’ll send a piece of you to the Almighty Tallest as a gift,”

Pinned to the moonlit grass by all four of Zim’s gleaming PAK legs, Dib lies flat on his back, chest heaving with exhausted breaths as his hazel eyes grow wide with a terror that borders on animalistic. Zim laughs in a manic sort of way, clouds of condensation puffing into the chilly spring air as he does so. 

“N-no, no, no--” Dib stammers pathetically, still refusing to use his telekinesis in favor of kicking at the PAK legs that pin him down.

“Yes, yes, yes!!” Zim howls, “Once I’m satisfied with my experiments, I’ll present you to the Tallest as a gift; I’ll be greatly rewarded for such a gesture, and you’ll be able to travel through space as a tool for the Irken Armada! We both get what we dream of!”

Zim is most certainly bluffing-- he has no intention of harming the Earth-smeet, he’s grown somewhat fond of the smelly little thing-- but the Dib is unaware of this, and the Irken Elite can feel the boy’s heart rate climb steadily as the seconds pass.

The 15-year-old Dib grits his teeth and writhes with renewed vigor at the thought of becoming the guinea pig for an alien race, sweat beading on his skin. As he thrashes about like a fish out of water, slushy muck splashes into the air. Some of this frigid snowmelt splashes high enough to splatter across Zim’s arm, which catches the Invader by surprise and forces an involuntarily hiss from between his teeth. In the half-second where Zim is distracted by his angrily-blistering skin, he staggers back on his faintly-glowing PAK legs, and Dib wriggles free as quickly as a snake and sprints away through the dark spruce trees surrounding them. 

With a sour pang of annoyance, Zim hisses a curse word in Irken before bolting after the human boy. 

Despite the Elite’s superior speed and agility, Dib somehow manages to swerve so wildly between the frosty trees that Zim only catches flickers of the boy’s movement every few seconds. He’s certain that Dib is using his power to give himself increased speed, and the thought of that makes Zim’s blood boil in irritation. 

Inevitably, however, Dib grows tired and sloppy with his movements, and ends up tripping with a yelp when his sneakers skid on some half-melted ice beneath a willow tree. He quickly darts to his feet and keeps running, but the fall costs him enough time for Zim to close the gap and extend a PAK leg. 

Zim feels the vibration as Dib’s ankle bangs against the cold metal, and a wicked spark of glee alights in his chest when the teenager cries out in pain and alarm and falls clumsily into the snow. 

I’ve got you now, Zim hisses mentally, You’ll have no choice but to fight back.

Zim lets his brilliant red eyes flicker off to the right, where an old fir tree creaks in the crisp breeze. He casts a malicious glance in Dib’s direction before swiping a PAK leg off to the side and effortlessly slicing through the rotting wood. By now, Dib’s scrambled to his feet and looks up with wide eyes just in time to see the old tree bearing down on him. 

With a thrill of satisfaction, Zim watches as the Dib’s eyes light up with a faint amber glow and he throws both hands up in the direction of the falling tree. In an instant, it freezes in place, hardly six inches from the boy’s fingertips, and dry needles rain down from the branches to paint the snow a deep green. 

Had Zim been paying more attention, perhaps he’d have noticed the way Dib’s skin grows several shades paler and his eyes grow slightly unfocused. As it stands, however, the Irken Elite is too wrapped up in his success to notice such minute details. Instead, he lets out a laugh.

“Finally! I’ve managed to make you use your abilities!!” he exclaims, “Simply incredible!”

Dib’s throat bobs as a shudder passes through his lanky body, and steps out from the tree’s shadow before letting it crash to the ground. He opens his mouth, presumably to let Zim know that something is going terribly wrong, but before he can make a sound, the alien’s already knocking a sizable boulder into the air in Dib’s direction. 

Dib forces his aching body to obey, to force his powers to manifest once more, and they do. He redirects the boulder to the side, where it cracks loudly against a tree trunk. Icy sweat runs down his skin, chilling him to the bone, and he tries once more to tell Zim to stop.

He barely manages to stop Zim’s PAK leg as it swings towards him in a wide arc, and Zim still fails to notice the warning signs Dib shows. 

That is, right up until Dib’s eyes roll back and the teenager wordlessly collapses in a heap. 

Zim shifts his attack just in time to avoid hitting Dib with his PAK leg, and scoffs in annoyance at the boy’s state. “Unbelievable. You’d go so far as to feign unconsciousness to avoid using your abilities? Pathetic.”

However, Dib doesn’t so much as twitch at the Irken’s words. Zim lowers himself to the ground with a scowl, crossing his arms and snapping, “Get up, pig-smelly. I don’t have the patience for your childish games.”

Still, he doesn’t move. Zim pauses, cocking an eyebrow in confusion.

“Dib-stink. Get up.”

No response.

“Hey.”

Zim’s crossed arms fall to his sides. A foreboding sense of worry begins to twist and turn in his gut. 

“Get up, Dib-stink.”

The worry wraps its disgusting claws even tighter around Zim’s insides, and the Elite walks across the mud and snow to where Dib lies deathly-still on his side. He pauses next to the fallen boy for a moment before shoving him onto his back. 

Zim feels his spooch twist with a spike of horrified nausea.

Dib’s chest scarcely rises and falls, and rivulets of crimson blood drip from his nose, mouth, and ears, staining the snow below his head with the damning color. His skin, once a light tan colour, now looks pallid white not unlike that of a corpse. Zim stumbles a few steps away from Dib, before feeling adrenaline burn in his veins.

I’ve killed him. I’ve killed the Earth-smeet.

No, I haven’t. I still have time to revive him. 

I should just let the brat die; it’s not as though he’s been anything but a nuisance in my mission to destroy Earth.

But…

What if…

“Ack, damn it all!” Zim snarls icily before extending his PAK legs once more and scooping the limp body of his greatest rival into one of them. 

Then, without a moment’s hesitation, the angry Irken Elite rockets away in the direction of the Dib’s house. 

#ficlet #fanfic #fanart #illustrated fic #illustration #invader zim #iz #invader zim au #iz au #zim #dib membrane #dib #dib iz #hitashit #hitafic #dib esp au

[pcttrailsidereader]

Independence Day

This is a re-posting of a wonderful story from 2013.  What more appropriate story could there be for July 4th!

There are several aspects of Jo’s story that I really like.  First, it captures in words a familiar obstacle that virtually all backpackers confront — fear.  I will be the first to admit that my overactive imagination is particularly energized when I am hiking alone. Second, I love the special relationship that Jo has with her service dog, “Mr. C”.  It brings to mind other such connections between canine and outdoorsperson, most notably John Muir and Stickeen.

By Josephine Pegrum Hazelett

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.

— Eleanor Roosevelt

Sometimes life takes an unexpected turn that forces you to confront yourself. You cannot predict the outcome; you just have to grab the experience and hope for the best. After hiking most of the Pacific Crest Trail with my husband, I had an opportunity to hike the John Muir Trail for a couple of weeks alone with my giant Border Collie service dog, Buffalo Bill Cody, or “Mr. C” for short.  I didn’t anticipate an experience that would challenge to the core of who I am.

We were five days in and had slipped into a peaceful routine: up before sunrise, walk most of the day and asleep again before darkness fell. On this particular day, we would hike Muir Pass, at almost 12,000 feet; it is one of the high and scenic places of the southern section of the Sierra Nevada. The night before I had camped nine miles south of the pass in a lush valley and we were ready for another uneventful and beautiful day.

Mr. C and I arose in the morning twilight and were on the trail as the first rays of sun straggled through the trees to warm our day. We made our way up the canyon that climbed at a gentle pace for the first few miles. At Big Pete Meadow I saw two young men breaking camp: we waived acknowledgement of our mutual presence and I walked on knowing that with their youthful stride, they would soon pass me.  As predicted, they overtook me about a half hour later and I would not see them again until I reached Wanda Lake on the other side of Muir Pass.  I was completely alone.  Looking back, I see what a privilege it was to have the entire hike up the Goddard Divide and down the other side all to myself—me and my dog in this incredibly wonderful part of the Sierra Nevada.

There were wildflowers of all kinds everywhere.  The trail was alive with the short–lived Sierra Spring.  It would have been hot hiking, but there was a thin cloud layer that kept the air cool and the hiking comfortable.

I had been warned that there was still snow on the south side of Muir Pass but having hiked the higher and more formidable Forester Pass four days earlier, I was not too concerned.  On my initial approach to Helen Lake I saw more snow and the sparse trees began to disappear.  I knew that the route had been well-traveled by hikers and I thought I would have plenty of footsteps to follow in, not to mention the fresh ones made by the two young men who had gone ahead of me this very morning.  Unfortunately, I made a couple of wrong turns at Helen Lake staying to its west side rather than crossing to the East where the trail was.  Consequently, I found myself walking steeply up the snow-covered face of the mountain.  Rather abruptly, the footsteps disappeared and I felt my first tremor of doubt. Backtracking to the lake, I found the main route and reassured, headed on.

I began to think about the fact that I was completely alone and that a wrong turn out here would rapidly take me off the traveled route—the potential for becoming really lost was frightening.

I crossed the stream above the lake several times; the last crossing was at the outlet from the snowmelt lake above Helen Lake. This was a bit daunting because the water was cascading down the mountain in a 90 degree plunge and the rocks on which I had to cross were far apart and pointed requiring me to leap from rock to jagged rock. I rued the loss of my lightweight hiking poles that had broken early in the hike; they would have assisted my balance. I knew that I must keep going—there was only one way to get to the other side and that was to cross the torrent.  Mr C, foot sure, had no qualms and oblivious to my concerns, leaped on the rocks across the chasm with all the grace and balance of an animal in the wild. My turn. Following in his steps, I leaped, one foot in front of the other finding each rock surprisingly firm under my feet. Afraid to acknowledge the fear that was creeping up on me, my mind seemed to float above the scene, watching with detachment—a kind of mental anesthetic. When I reached the other side I felt a surge of relief. Mr. C sensing the intensity of my emotion cocked his head and gave me a look like, “What was that about?”

My euphoria over this accomplishment did not last long. On the other side of the outlet, we traipsed through more snow for about half a mile until we came to a high and rocky valley filled with snow on all sides and a rush of snow melt running through a wide open area of scree. I could see no trail. Since the mountains rose in all directions but the one I had come from, I knew I would have to climb one of those vertical, snow-covered mountains, but I couldn’t see a route. If I chose the wrong direction, I would be truly lost.

To the north, the direction I thought I should go, there was a wide band of running water and I didn’t know how deep it was. I thought I saw a trail duck or cairn on the other side but it might easily have been a real bird. To avoid the water I headed to the Northwest, where I saw footsteps on the snowy mountainside but as I approached, they melted into the sun cups they were. Clearly, my mind was manufacturing what I wanted to see. I felt my options slipping away as fast as I could summon them up, and now, I felt the cold edge of panic. Logically, I told myself there was nothing to fear, but knowing this in your head does not stop your breath from escaping in short narrow puffs as your heart goes wild and your imagination takes off into the unreal scenarios of what could happen. The moment stretched infinitely and unknowably before me as I contemplated the possibility of not finding the trail. I forced myself to breathe, pushed the fear deep down and reminded myself that it would be embarrassing to die up here alone—I did not want to be a story on page 10 of the local paper, “Woman dies alone, lost on Mountain.” I’d never live it down—then, with an inward smile, I thought, I’d be dead so I wouldn’t have to!  With that sobering thought, I focused on finding my way out of the bowl.

The Northwest route rejected, I returned to the river of water rushing over the rocks, in places deep and uncertain, but the panic had passed and I would go on.  I found the rock that looked like a duck (100 feet or so away, across the water) and decided that it was worth checking out.  The water wasn’t as challenging to cross as I thought it would be and sure enough on the other side, the duck turned out to be a real duck pointing out the trail right beside it.  I started up the mountain, and again the trail disappeared into the snow.  I had hoped to reach Muir Hut to have lunch but I had eaten nothing since breakfast and it was 1:30 p.m.  Even though I didn’t feel hungry I knew I must eat. I stopped on the steep face of the mountain and in every direction the snow lay around me.  I opened up an energy bar for myself and took out some Power Bones for Mr. C.  At the time, I was so focused on making it to the pass in one piece that I hadn’t spent much time thinking about Mr. Cody; however he was having a wonderful time. He loves the snow and would spend all his time rolling in it if I allowed him to.  Now, he used his paws to create a nest and rest.  Mr. C and I sat there in the snow munching our food quite alone and I found myself talking to him as though he would answer me.  Not in words, perhaps, but there was a special connection between us; he is very intuitive and his obvious lack of concern reassured me.

After lunch, I continued up the vertical side of the mountain (I’m sure there were switch-backs beneath the snow somewhere) post-holing as I went. Again I rued the loss of the lightweight trekking poles, they would have been helpful here.  I trudged on, expecting to have a long way to go when suddenly I was aware of the curve of a dome appearing above the crest of my mountain, and with a few steps more, I knew that the dome was the top of the Muir Hut!  I was close to the summit.  A burst of energy took me to the top and looking over into the valley below I was overcome with joy to be there.  I felt immensely happy to be alive and all the fear I’d felt washed out of me in an instant as I burst uncontrollably into tears. Here I was on top of the world in one of the most beautiful places on earth—how could anything be better than this—ever?

Cody on the other hand took one look at Muir Hut and headed straight for it! It looked like “home” to him—a place to rest, and even better, there might be food! The two of us stayed there at the top of the pass quite alone, looking out at the snow-covered mountains and the partly frozen lakes below. Time stopped and I could have stayed forever, alone with my loyal friend in our own piece of heaven. I reflected how fortunate I was to have the moment to myself. The sky, which had been gray, brightened, and as I stood there the last of the clouds disintegrated and I found myself bathed in warm sunlight—a real gift.

It was July 4 and a year since I had become an American citizen! I don’t know why this popped into my head at this moment. I think I was musing about how most people would be spending the day—at parades and picnics, with family and friends. I thought about the first Europeans who would have come to this place even a hundred or so years ago, how remote and wild it would have been then. I thought about the Indians who lived here for a millennium before the Europeans and what life must have been like for them. I thought about how I was on my own journey in space and mind and in that moment, I felt I was the luckiest person in the world. This was a special place and time and I wanted to hold on to it forever.  

I had a long way to go before I would descend below the snowline on the north side of the pass. Going forward into the snowfields was a lot less intimidating since descending, I could see great distances ahead. For the first time, I felt that Cody and I would finish this hike, and that I could handle whatever I needed to in the remaining week, one mountain at a time.

Miles later, when we came to rest for the night by Evolution Creek, I covered Mr. Cody with my rainwear to give him some relief from the mosquitoes.  I thought about my husband Kerry celebrating the day with friends and how I wished he could share this moment with me. I missed him but I was very happy to be here alone—I had been forced to face my fears head on and I had learned that when you are truly afraid—what is revealed is the very essence of who you are, there is no way to hide from your real self or to avoid that moment of reckoning. You will know the metal you are made of.  Today I had faced myself, and I found that I had more internal resources than I realized.  It was a powerful feeling.

I drifted toward sleep and that is how one of the most challenging days of my life ended, quietly as it began. I was calm and peaceful now and ready for a new day on the trail.

#Muir Pass #Lake Helen #Big Pete Meadow #Evolution Lake

[lostcoastoutfitters]

Truckee River Fly Fishing Report

Matt Koles reports on 3.27.19

Winter’s returned.

Hard to stomach these last few days when you look at the calendar and it's supposed to be spring, especially after the winter we’ve had. More snow on the way this week, geez.

Oh well, life could be worse, and we could bitching about having no water at all. Get used to the Truckee River being big and gnarly into summer.

There are fish to be caught. You just have to find some soft water. You can find that soft water all up and down the river if you know what to look for. Like I say, it might take a few trips of exploring and paying your dues. Or, if you’re smart, you hire yours truly and bridge the gap.

Give ‘em something meaty, and don’t wade up to your balls. Trouts are close to the banks out of current. Streamer fishing and tight line nymphing are my go to. Streamer fishing should be on the top of your list. If you’re not that good at streamer fishing. get in on a clinic. I’ll have some more this spring. Wanna get a true trophy, this is the time, not in August when it’s 100 degrees out and those fish are on a siesta. Don’t expect a lot right now. Be happy with a few good fish a day.

The whole California side is fishing good, Nevada side too. Yes, I said good. Clarity is really good too. Had a good trip through the Nature Conservancy in Nevada the other day. Been a tough go for me the last few months down there. The water is much warmer down there now and the fish have woke up. It was a cold winter up here.

Be safe out there and buckle up for the long haul of high water.

3.19.19

Nice warmish weather on the Truckee River.

Still very cold at night, but warm afternoons the last few days. A little snowmelt, but not much yet.

In fact most of our snow down low is melting slowly. Good, we don’t need it to melt all at once. Access is a lot easier here in the Hirsch. No snow at all anymore below Floriston into Nevada. Only thing is, you have to deal with the high water.

Clarity is really good, most of the water is coming out of Lake Tahoe right now. not from melt. Pretty good clarity down through the Nature Conservancy in Nevada too.

So the Truckee River is in pretty good shape. Trouts can be caught. Water is just high and you have to fish slow spots where fish can get out of current. Just about 1,700 k here in the Hirsch. I’ve caught fish up almost to 6,000 k back in ’17. Will the river get that high? I don’t think so, unless we get a lot of April rain.

And folks, there’s trout all over the river at these flows. Not just here in Hirschdale. Go explore the river and find some spots for yourself. You’ll probably do better. It might take you a few trips to figure things out in the high water, but persevere young butterflies, success will come.

I do have spots open for the High Water Clinic on April 6th. It will really up your game for this high water.

#fishingreport #FRTruckee #frtruckeeriver

[koenvs3000f21]

All About Balance

I have always admired the balance that is maintained in nature. There is a beautiful ebb and flow to it that truly inspires me to channel my highest state of inner peace. It’s amazing to me how everything in an ecosystem is dependent on one another. If you remove or alter one biotic or abiotic factor, the entire habitat can immediately change. This is what I know to be the most amazing thing about nature - numerous building blocks working together and relying on one another to live and survive the best that they can.

Let’s take a trip to Banff National Park in the uppermost alpine ecoregion of the park, where the only vegetation that can withstand the cold temperatures and snow are located in meadows. In the early spring, the first perennial you can see emerge following the snowmelt is the glacier lily. Standing around 30 cm in height, this beautiful yellow flower is the first food source for many animals as they come out of hibernation following the winter. You can also see bumble bees buzzing around the glacier lilies, transferring its pollen to procreate this unique plant species. However, this year, warm temperatures have decided to come early due to climate change and the snow has started melting earlier than usual. The grizzly bears that forage on this plant did not react the same to warmer temperatures as the lily and stayed in hibernation until their typical time range each year. Now, when the bears do emerge from hiding, they have missed the short timeframe in which the glacier lilies are alive and must scavenge for a new food, if there is any. There is a possibility that now the bears will not obtain enough energy for the season, or they could eat the food of another hungry animal. Something as small as an earlier snowmelt date suddenly has the ability to significantly disturb the balance of the ecosystem, affecting every component involved in it.

Beck et al. (2018) states that interpreters act as a bridge between future climate change projections and educating the public about these facts. Interpreters must teach others about the magnitude of their actions, and how society can increase quality of life for all the species we share the Earth with (Beck et al., 2018). Many of the elements that offset the balance of an ecosystem are because of the actions of humans. The reason the snow has started melting earlier in the year in our hypothetical story is a result of humans emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that warm our planet, just to name one example. In this instance, not only will the glacier lilies and animals suffer, but the park could begin looking completely different with less and less snow each year. It is extremely important for humans to take action in order to preserve the equilibrium that must be maintained in our ecosystems. Nature interpreters must educate participants on climate change to make it clear that if they want to continue exploring nature’s beauty and learning from its magnificent balance, then it must be taken care of.

- Katarina

Beck, L., Cable, T.T., & Knudson. D.M. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage for a better world. Sagamore-Venture.

[cw-as-fieldresearch]

Three weeks in - here’s what’s happening at TVC!

Hi everyone!

Well, I make no promises about a consistent blog, but how about periodic updates? The first stretch here was pretty busy – the problem with doing work in the snow is that you never know when it is going to disappear, so there was a lot of rushing to get our snow work done! A few weeks later and it has still barely melted … hence, we have time for things like a big update on what we’ve been up to. Let’s start at the beginning!

We had a beautiful trip up here – an overnight in Vancouver, which was sunny and beautiful and blooming – it almost made me not want to head north to winter again! There we got to catch up with a whole bunch of Cory’s friends at an amazing potluck, and I got my all-time favourite espresso beverage, the Spanish Latte. The next day brought us to one of my favourite cities, Whitehorse. Cory has only had really brief stopovers in the city, so we spent the afternoon wandering around the awesome trails along the Yukon River, and admiring all of the sights of pretty frozen rivers and snow-topped mountains in balmy 8 degree (Celsius) weather. The next day was an early morning start to take the milk run to Inuvik. We jumped aboard the good old reliable Air North Hawker Siddley, and hopped from Inuvik -> Dawson City -> Old Crow -> Inuvik. We lost the spring weather pretty quickly en route – still in the -20 degree (Celsius) range once we landed in Inuvik!

We had a few days in Inuvik to get organized, and on April 19th we hit the trails with a couple ski-doos dragging toboggans full of our gear for a 3 hour trip into camp (midway between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk)! Cory started off with a bang – before we even left the boundaries of town, Cory launched his ski-doo and toboggan over a snow bank and caught at least 4 feet of air, and still managed to stick the landing. Apparently the large bump pushed him into the throttle. A very dramatic start to his snowmobiling career! Things were much less exciting for the remainder of the trip – just a lot of really beautiful sights as we travelled from the north edge of the boreal forest into the tundra!

We’ve been kept well through the worst of the cold and it’s just going to get warmer from here (we hope). Cory and I have been very grateful for our army surplus purchased sleeping bags – so toasty every night, no matter how cold it has been! The first few nights in camp we had some darkness, and with darkness in the north comes auroras! There were some pretty spectacular auroras that only lasted for a maybe a minute one night, but in that minute we saw greens, reds, and purples dancing right across the sky! Not long after that night and complete darkness became a thing of the past – no more dark for the tundra until August.

Science progressed slowly but surely, and the very slow snowmelt worked in our favour. We had three main projects that we wanted to get done before snowmelt:

1)      Take a bunch snow cores from shrub patches to count seed in the snow (green alder drops its seed over the winter, so that’s the best place to find its seed)

2)      Snow survey (aka measure snow depth and density) across a bunch of shrub patches and Cory’s snow fence that he set up to test aspects of the snow-shrub hypothesis that is a pretty big deal in the tundra shrub world

3)      Measure the temperature at the snow-ground interface

As with most science, we had our fair share of hiccups – Cory and I came to hate the snow tube that we use to take snow cores. Sometimes the snow would get stuck in it and we would lose a bunch of time trying to get it out, or the “plug” of soil that it usually grabs would get stuck too and be impossible to get out, or we would just hit a thick layer of “wind slab” in the snow that was almost impenetrable by the corer and took ages to get through. And then there was the first snow pit that we dug to measure the temperature at the snow-ground interface – the darn thing was 160 cm deep! It takes awhile to dig that deep in snow! We aren’t talking light fluffy stuff either, it takes some serious chipping to get through some layers! This insanely dense snow is what makes igloos so much easier to build here than in more southern snow though – we pulled out some pretty awesome snow bricks.

I was really surprised at how different the snow is here from what I’ve seen at Scotty Creek (near Fort Simpson, NWT). There is so much more variability across the landscape on the tundra – some areas are hardly 15 cm deep, and other areas you get several meters! When there’s nothing but hills, low vegetation, and a whole lot of wind over the winter, you get some serious snow movement and drifting.  One of the other really neat things is the ice fog – beautiful, shimmering ice fog that leaves the most amazing frosty crystals on everything it touches! I can’t get enough of the intricacy of the crystals. We also have gotten some cool variability in the shape of the snowflakes that fall. Apparently the usual thing for up here are these tiny little snow columns that fall (they look like delicate little sprinkles), but when it got milder we got perfect little traditional snowflakes. Very pretty!

There’s been a little bit of wildlife around camp – we had a fox (“Monty”) who was a bit of a regular around camp, but we spooked it off with a bear banger when it started to get into garbage. He was quite the beautiful fella, and I got some awesome pictures of him. One morning he even posed for me in front of a stunning early morning sun dog! There are a ton of ptarmigans around, ladel-ladel-ladelling through the night, and the usual ravens occasionally flying over. The past week all of the migratory birds have started flocking back in mass though – Canadian geese, snow geese, sandhill cranes, and loons have all started making overhead appearances! I don’t know where they’re all going to go right now considering everything around us is still snow/ice covered, but it’s a welcome sign of “spring” anyway. There was a grizzly bear sighting a few kilometers away from camp, and some big grizzly tracks through the snow in Trail Valley Creek itself, but no major threats to camp.

We went out on a big ice fishing expedition awhile ago to the Husky Lakes – this is the place where I had hiked to last summer (a 3.5 hour hike) and caught lake trout and arctic grayling. The snowmobile trip was soooo much easier of course, but our fishing was not so successful – we only caught tiny little sea monsters (sculpin). It was still a very lovely relaxing day after Cory and I had been putting in some very long days of fieldwork for 10 days non-stop.

Life around camp has been great. There have been some great improvements to camp this year, like incinerating toilets that actually work effectively (thanks Incinolet!) and a stellar little propane stove/oven that has been well used. One of the perks of winter work is actually having meat in camp, so we’ve had meals featuring roast beef, chicken parmesan, steaks, and soooo much bacon for breakfast! We’ve done a fair bit of baking too – cookies, cakes, muffins, biscuits, peach crumble, quiche, and pizza! It’s a pretty awesome place to be all-around.

I think that covers all of the highlights of our fieldwork adventures so far. Now that we have down time while we’re waiting for the snow to melt, Cory and I are going to work on writing some papers that need our attention – much less exciting than playing in the snow, but it’s gotta happen!

Until next time!

-Ana and Cory

#fieldwork #arcticecology #research #north

[hellsbeelz]

Hymn of Gathering Stars prt 1

Series: Digimon (Frontier based but unrelated to the series) Relationship: OC x OC  Characters: Blacktailmon and Knightmon Summary: A Snow storm brought them together, a silver ring bound them forever.

The world was lit only with the pale light of the three moons when they met on the road. Both heading the same way, with rumors of bandits on the route ahead, they agreed it was better to stick together, at least until they reached the settlement ahead.

Knightmon had been on his way to answer a summons from Lord Seraphimon and had gotten separated from his troop when they were attack by beastial outlaws south of the Breezy Villiage. Blacktailmon refused to say why she was out so far from civilization on her own. The pair barely spoke during their journey to the base of the mountain. There was a quiet village there they would rest, resupply and part ways at. No need to get too friendly.

That was before the storm, at least.

Knightmon and Blacktailmon had just managed to reach the village when the blizzard hit. The citizens welcomed them and gave them shelter from the storm that lasted nearly a week. By the time it cleared, the pass through the mountain was completely sealed with snow, making further travels impossible until spring melted the snow away. 

Blacktailmon tried to keep to herself while they waited for the snowmelt, but Knightmon went around from house to house to help repair damage from the storm. They met each night in the village tavern, and Knightmon would talk to her about the different places he’d been, the Digimon he met and even the people who lived in this village.

It annoyed her at first, but soon enough Knightmon’s stories became the highlight of Blacktailmon’s day. She waited all day for him to come in to tell her more about the wars he had fought in. Finally the day came when Knightmon had no more stories to tell, so he ordered them drinks and turned to her, “What about you?” He asked.

“Me?” Blacktailmon blinked, “I don’t have any stories.”

“Oh, come on now, you must have stories. Everyone has some kind of story to tell. Were you born in the village of Beginnings, or somewhere else?” He looked at her intently, like he was actually expecting her to answer. 

A whole minute must have passed before she finally replied. “Village of Beginnings.”

“And where did you go when you were sent off?”

“I was supposed to go to the Fortuneteller village, but I got lost. I ended up at Steel Town where I got work delivering mail.” She said with a shrug. “That’s not much of a story.”

“You still work there?”

The Nohemon that was working at the tavern came by with their drinks, Blacktailmon took a sip from hers before answering, “No. I left Steel Town to go to Akiba Market.”

“And what happened after that?” Knightmon said, gesturing for her to continue with a gentle tone. She didn’t answer, “Come on now, all stories have a beginning, middle and end, you can’t tell half a story.”

“Nothing much, I went to the Akiba Market and have been wandering ever since.”  Blacktailmon started to feel quite dull, there was only one story in her life worth telling was one she couldn’t tell anyone.  “I’ve never done anything interesting. Never been to war, never gone on adventures with friends.”

Her master would be really mad if word of his existence reached the wrong ears.

“You don’t need to have done anything big to tell a good story.” Knightmon replied, she could see his eyes sparkle with a smile she couldn’t see, “Perhaps you are drawn to my battle stories, bt I think my best stories are about the little things I’ve done, just with everyday folk.”

She huffed, “What so great about everyday folk?” Blacktailmon asked, turning toward her drink, not intending to get an answer.

Knightmon slapped her gently on the back, “Perhaps you should come out with me tomorrow and see for yourself.” He said and took a swig from his mug.

“I don’t want to.” Blacktailmon replied, she got another gentle slap on the back in response.

“What’s the matter? You’ll never have a good story to tell if you don’t go out there and meet people.”

They chatted back and forth like that for most of the evening before Blacktailmon finally agreed to accompany him in the morning. Before they retired for the night, he also managed to convince her to tell him about how she had been attacked after she’d left the market and was saved by a powerful Digimon.

Knightmon tried to press her for more of the story but she finally got him to shut up by admitting that she didn’t know how this story ended because it was still going on. “I owe him my life, so I’ve been working for him ever since. That’s why I’m out here, I’m doing a chore for him.” She said with a sigh, “I hate it. I wish he had just let me die. I would rather have the chance to start over than be playing errand girl for him.”

“Don’t say stuff like that.” Knightmon said, “Even if we do get reborn, life is a precious thing and you must live it to your fullest while you can.”

She glared at him, “But I can’t, don’t you see? How can I live my life to the fullest when all I can do is just run from one of his jobs to the next. I’ll never be free unless I can find some way to save his life...And that’s not gonna happen, he doesn’t need me.”

Knightmon was silent for a moment, “Remember what I said earlier, about how the best things in life are the little things?” He said, swirling his mug, “Sounds to me like your errands send you all across the Digital World. Haven’t you ever stopped to look at the places you visit, or talk to the Digimon you meet?”

She shook her head.

Knightmon took a final swig of his drink, and looked her in the eyes, “You should learn to do that. No one ever said you can’t have fun on the job, as long as the work gets done,”

“I don’t understand.” Blacktailmon blinked at him as Knightmon stood up, ready to retire for the night,

He patted her shoulder as he passed, “You’ll see tomorrow.”

She turned to watch him walk toward the stairs. “It’s a date then...” she muttered/

#Digimon Fanfiction #Blacktailmon #knightmon #OC x OC #Digimon OCs

[elwincastro901-blog]

Important spring hiking tips

Spring hiking evokes images of delicate woodland trillium, gushing waterfalls and hikers trying to locate the most compelling destination that isn't socked in with snow. It's a time of giddy anticipation as we eagerly make plans to visit our favorite trails.

And for many folks who have huddled inside all winter, it's also a time to get their "trail brain" on again. It's easy to forget some of the basic items you need in your pack as you plan your first trip into the mountains. Or to push too far or stay too long for the conditions. That's why WTA has put together these tips for spring hiking. Whether it is your first time hiking or your 1,000th, it's always wise to refresh your memory about these important safety issues before heading out. Thinking of doing a little spring snowshoeing? Check out our late winter and avalanche safety tips before heading out. Related Articles : https://www.hikingbay.com

Be Prepared

Many hikers will admit that they sometimes forget to pack an important item in their backpack, especially in the spring when they are a bit out of practice. Every backpacking party should carry the Ten Essentials. These essentials are a topographic map, compass, extra food, extra clothing, firestarter, matches, sun protection, a pocket knife, first-aid kit, and flashlight.

Some of these are particularly important for spring hiking: • Adequate extra clothing - It may seem warm when you begin your hike, but the temperature can drop precipitously on your journey and winds can be mighty cold atop ridges or at lakes. Bring clothing layers made of materials that wick sweat and moisture away from your body, such as wool or polypropolene. Don't leave your rain gear behind no matter how cloudless the sky. Pack extra socks, should yours get wet. And consider investing in gaiters to keep your legs dry when crossing streams and brushing up against wet plants. • Map and compass - Hikers should always carry these items, but in the spring they are especially important when hazards like snow and blowdown can obscure an otherwise obvious trail. • First Aid kit - When was the last time you looked at your first aid kit? Spring is the time to open it up and replenish its stores. You'll be happy you did when the first blister appears. • Food and water - Hiking makes you hungry and thirsty. Don't skimp on the food and water. ultralight backpacking mess kit https://www.hikingbay.com/ultralight-backpacking-cooking-gear

Columbia Hills is a great spot for catching spring wildflowers in Washington. Photo by Bob and Barb. Choosing Your Destination The perennial spring hiking question is: where's the snow? Or rather, where is there not snow? In particularly snowy and wet years, this refrain can be heard well into July. User-Generated Trip Reports Fortunately, WTA can help you. Our user-generated trip reports are the best guide to what conditions are like on a specific trail right now. Check these reports for inspiration about where to hike and to find out what you may encounter on your hike. And when you have returned, please contribute a Trip Report of your own. This system is as good as you make it. Contact Ranger Stations The closest ranger station is another go-to resource. Check the latest conditions on the Forest Service and Park Service websites, or better yet, call ahead and talk to someone on-the-ground. WTA has links to all of the major land management agencies here. lattcure outfitters sleeping bag https://www.hikingbay.com/finding-the-best-lightweight-sleeping-bag-for-hiking Check Weather and Snow Conditions

There are many excellent weather resources available to hikers. Our favorite is the National Weather Service's mountains forecast page that provides a detailed forecast for hiking destinations (not just towns and cities) throughout Western Washington. The other must-read website is produced by the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center. It provides avalanche forecasts, as well as an hour-by-hour look at temperature, wind, precipitation and snow that goes back 10 days. The latter can be hard to find on the website, so use this link for Snoqualmie Pass. (There are other locations as well). Suggested Hikes WTA.org is full of suggestions for spring hiking. Try a wildflower hike. Or a desert hike in Central Washington. We have lots of suggestions for spring hiking. If you hear of a hike you're interested in, check out WTA's Hiking Guide. Hazards of Spring Hiking Snow. Rain. Mud. Blowdowns. Nasty roads. All are hazards of spring. But the good news is that each week, these conditions get better. Snow melts. Rainy skies give way to sunny ones. Trail crews remove downed trees and fix muddy spots on the trail (join a WTA trail crew to be part of the solution). And if we're lucky, roads get fixed. So what do we really need to know to stay safe and have fun hiking in the spring? 1 Snow Snow makes the mountains look pretty. But it is slick (especially in the morning when cold nighttime temperatures have turned it to ice), it can be soft (post-holing is common), it can obscure an otherwise prominent trail, and changing conditions can trigger an avalanche or collapse a snow cornice. Hikers who want to push on through snow should come prepared with traction devices for their boots or snowshoes and good route-finding skills. All hikers should use common sense. As tempting as it may be to push on to your destination, know when to turn back. WTA has compiled a list of snow-travel tips that you will want to review. 2 Water Conditions can change quickly any day of the year in the mountains, but particularly in the spring. Every hiker should carry rain gear and several layers of clothing, and anticipate changing the layers often to combat rain, wind, sweat and mists from waterfalls. It's easy to get chilled. In addition, as the weather warms up and snow begins to melt stream crossings become more challenging and potentially dangerous. WTA has detailed the best way to ford a river or stream. Watch the video for more information. In addition, be wary of wet logs and rocks that could be slippery. What To Wear On A Hike And Still Look Cute? https://www.hikingbay.com/what-to-wear-on-a-hike-and-still-look-cute 3 Mud and Blowdowns Mud and blowdowns are byproducts of our northwestern winters and are the two most common trail issues that WTA's trail maintenance team of volunteers combat each year. What happens, however, when you hit the trail before a trail crew can get out and fix it? If you possibly can, stick it out and slog right through that mud or under that downed tree. When hiker after hiker tries to skirt a problem spot, fragile meadows are liable to be damaged. Keep your balance in these and other slick spots with trekking poles. And when navigating a blowdown obstacle course, watch out for poking sticks. 4 Nasty Roads It's also imperative to check road conditions before heading out on your hike. Many are gated in winter and may not have been opened yet. Others are potholed or still covered in a layer of snow, not suited for the family sedan. Still others are closed due to flood damage or road conditions. Ranger station websites are the best resource for road conditions. You can access the one you need from here. Fun of Spring Hiking Now that we're done telling you about the hazards of spring, let us remind you of a few of the many joys: • Unfurling fern fronds emerging from the duff • Raindrops sparkling on the trees as the sun pokes out from the clouds • The sweet pungent scent of black cottonwood • Waterfalls swollen with snowmelt • Trillium, balsamroot and skunk cabbage brightening the way • Hiking without bugs

[cryptnus-blog]

Snowpack’s ripple effects | News

New Post has been published on https://cryptnus.com/2018/05/snowpacks-ripple-effects-news/

Snowpack’s ripple effects | News

Any skier in Aspen can tell you it was a below-average year for snowfall. Though the books are closed on the winter season, the effects of the snowpack are going to reverberate through the summer and each drop of that snowmelt will be important for keeping fish healthy. The current outlook is tepid. 

The valley’s river ecology has evolved to depend on peak flows and cold water temperatures. With the spring runoff on the rise, many local organizations are looking at what’s downstream for the fish of the Roaring Fork River. 

The Roaring Fork Conservancy is a nonprofit that works on behalf of its namesake watershed, which includes all water sources from high in the Elk Mountains and the Fryingpan basin that confluence with the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs. The Roaring Fork Conservancy works year-round to provide the best science possible to decision makers and the public, taking real-world water issues and interpreting them at various levels. This includes understanding snowpack and how much water goes where, getting to know the macroinvertebrates that live in our streams and working on policy issues.

“Our mission is to inspire individuals to explore, value and protect the Roaring Fork watershed,” said Roaring Fork Conservancy education and outreach coordinator Liza Mitchell. If people value the water, they are more likely to work together for its protection, she added.

“Right now, we are at 61 percent of normal — that’s the snow-water content in the snowpack,” Mitchell said. 

The numbers are compared to a 30-year rolling average, from 1980-2010. “So it does not include the past eight years in that average. 2012 was a pretty dry year; in relation we are sitting just higher in terms of snowpack at this time of year,” she said.

The seasonal snowpack peaked around April 7 and has been decreasing since then. Some of that snowpack evaporates, some saturates the soil and the rest flows into streams and rivers. Most everything below 10,000 feet has melted, but there is still a high-alpine snowpack that, while well below average for May, is still to come down as the temperatures rise.

“We are starting to see stream flows increase,” Mitchell said. “They are still on the up, so it hasn’t peaked yet. That said, they are not predicted to get anywhere near average stream flow.”

  Cleansing flow is critical

According to Mitchell, the local ecosystem has evolved over millennia in a manner dominated by the snowmelt cycle. 

“There is a pattern of low flow all winter, while it’s snowing. [Then] it rises, it peaks, and then it drops back down to base flow.”

The ecological processes that occur during peak flow are of the utmost importance for the overall health of the rivers and surrounding environs. Peak flows can move rocks, which changes the substrate of the stream, knocking loose algae and debris from previous years. As the water pushes sediment downstream and clears up space between the rocks, the base of the food web can grow in those interstitial places. Macroinvertebrates are aquatic insects, at their juvenile or nymph stage. May flies, caddis flies and stone flies are most common in the Roaring Fork watershed. 

“If you never have those peak flows, flushing flows, then those areas build up with mud and suffocate the macroinvertebrates; without macroinvertebrates you don’t have trout; without trout there is no food for eagles and ospreys,” Mitchell said. Runoff also inundates the flood plains, bringing water to the riparian vegetation, which then provides shade to keep the streams cool. 

Peak flows also assist in scouring the river channel, creating a spawning habitat for trout. 

“Trout like loosely packed cobbles with water flowing through — it’s good for bug habitat as well as for laying eggs,” said Kendall Bakich, aquatic biologist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “This is particularly an issue with recurring low-flow years, so it may not be an issue this year as long as we return to average in the future.”

Fish friendly before noon

But as the runoff peaks earlier and lower than normal, the river gets to base flow sooner and the fish begin to feel the impacts. Introduced sport fish like brown trout, rainbow trout and mountain whitefish are most at risk. Native cutthroat and brook trout live in higher elevations where the temperatures are the coldest, but as the smaller headwaters streams fall to lower flows they will face concentration, or even streams drying up entirely.

In any river, as the water drops the fish begin to lose some habitat, adding to their stress. This puts them at a competitive disadvantage for food and makes them more susceptible to disease. Habitat concentration causes weakened immune systems among stressed fish and the proximity serves to pass disease between them faster. 

“At lower water flows and higher temperatures, fish become extremely stressed,” said Matt Kelsic, a fishing guide and president of the local chapter of Trout Unlimited. “There is less oxygen in the water and it makes it harder for fish to recover.

“Even if you do all the best catch and release tactics — keeping the fish wet, using barbless hooks, making sure your hands are wet before handling the fish — all those things become moot if there isn’t enough for the fish to recover,” Kelsic said.

From a commercial perspective, Kelsic said that means trying to get trips out the door early and being off the water no later than noon. 

“Keep water temperature in mind, fishing earlier in the day when it’s the coolest and not again until [later]. But that may not even be feasible with [water] temperatures,” he said, suggesting anglers get thermometers to be aware of conditions. 

“Sixty-five degrees is usually the trigger to start looking at asking for voluntary fishing closures,” added Bakich, of Colorado Parks and Wildlife. 

Kelsic also suggested fishing higher in the watershed to find colder temperatures. “The upper valley, high mountain water and the Fryingpan are all going to be cooler,” he said.

The Fryingpan River is known as a “tailwater stream” because Ruedi is a bottom-release dam. The thermal stratification in the reservoir allows the water to stay very cold at the bottom. “So the Fryingpan may stay cooler than some of the other rivers,” Mitchell said. “This provides a buffer for the fish and we might see some fish from the Roaring Fork coming into the Fryingpan as a cold-water refuge if it gets really warm.”

Both Trout Unlimited and Roaring Fork Conservancy will be doing ongoing education for the public as the summer progresses. In past dry years, Roaring Fork Conservancy ran a program called Hotspots for Trout, an educational campaign about the negative effects of warm water on fish. This year they are considering citizen-science programs to get water thermometers into the hands of anglers, rafters or anyone who is out of the river.

“It’s a simple data point to collect, and then report that to us,” Mitchell said. “And then we can help continue to be the eyes on the river and the voice for the river. If the river is getting too hot and people are out there helping us see that, then we can elevate that voice and share that message with the public.”

As part of its ongoing research efforts, Roaring Fork Conservancy will closely monitor a strain of algae in the Fryingpan River, which is called Didymosphenia geminata or locally referred to as “rock snot.” As temperatures go up, algae and bacteria can flourish. Low water already has less oxygen and algae use up what little is left, exacerbating problems for fish and macroinvertebrates. 

Roaring Fork Conservancy will also partner with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to connect with fly shops so they can help spread the word through their guides and try to concentrate the times people fish, out of the heat of the day.

  Jordan Curet is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Aspen.

[dolphin-123-blog]

So is coal great again or what? wow

  mine country

Early last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order reversing the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. He told the assembled coal miners that the move promised boom times ahead. “You know what this says?” Trump asked. “You’re going back to work.”

Ten months later, the results are mixed. Behold the facts:

Jobs gained, jobs lost: Total U.S. coal employment was up about 1.6 percent last year, with most new coal jobs added in Virginia and West Virginia. But preliminary federal data obtained by Reuters shows that nearly two-thirds of coal-producing states reported coal job losses, including Ohio, Kentucky, Montana, Wyoming, and Texas.

Closure ahead: About half of the gains in coal jobs will be wiped out if the 4 West Mine in Pennsylvania closes this summer as scheduled, laying off around 400 coal workers.

Coal jobs near historic low: Some 50,000 people work in the coal industry, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s roughly one-third of what it was in the late ’80s.

More miner deaths: Last year saw 15 workplace-related coal worker deaths, an increase from nine in 2016.

Demand still sliding: Thanks to the usual suspects of cheap natural gas and falling costs for solar and wind power, old coal plants are getting less competitive, and U.S. demand for the fuel is decreasing.

One year after Trump was sworn in, his dreams of rolling back environmental policies have come true. But his promise to bring back coal is another story.

  tick-tock

The Doomsday Clock is a theoretical device meant to communicate how close we are to destroying civilization. It just moved 30 seconds closer to midnight — that is, The End — which hasn’t happened since 1953.

The Clock is “operated” by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a respected academic journal that informs the public about significant threats to the survival of humankind. On Thursday, the Bulletin released its 2018 Doomsday Clock statement.

The primary reason that the clock is now set at two minutes to midnight is the threat of nuclear war. But climate change has plenty to do with how close humanity has come to destroying ourselves, for the following reasons in the Bulletin’s statement:

Carbon emissions haven’t started declining yet. In fact, they started rising again in 2017.

The U.S. government derailed progress on climate change last year by announcing withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.

Climate-related weather disasters are becoming more frequent and more damaging.

“The nations of the world will have to significantly decrease their greenhouse gas emissions to keep climate risks manageable, and so far, the global response has fallen far short of meeting this challenge,” the authors of the statement wrote.

public interest

What? Yes. According to a report released by The Wilderness Society on Thursday, “If U.S. public lands were their own country, they would rank fifth in the world for greenhouse gas emissions.”

There’s been a big hullaballoo over Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s plans to turn our public lands over to industry interests. But a lot of that land is already leased out to oil and gas companies, in transactions that have been largely shielded from public view.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the report’s more alarming findings:

Oil, gas, and coal projects on public lands are responsible for at least 20 percent of our country’s total emissions.

There is currently no “systematic effort to track nor disclose the carbon consequences of energy leasing on public lands.” That means the American public has had little opportunity to weigh in on how its energy resources are managed.

The Bureau of Land Management under President Trump has instructed land management agencies to forgo climate impact assessments in the interest of spurring new energy developments.

That’s all bad news for the climate. In fact, there isn’t really any good news here, but The Wilderness Society did provide this nifty Accountability Tool you can use to explore public lands emissions.

Trump the builder

After the passage of the contentious GOP tax bill and a prolonged congressional stand-off on the Affordable Care Act, Trump’s proposed infrastructure plan is an initiative we can finally get behind. Our infrastructure is old, dangerous, and in desperate need of an overhaul. Nothing controversial here! What? Oh, god. Here we go again.

This week, Politico and Axios published a document that the leakers claim is a draft of Trump’s infrastructure bill. The outline isn’t a final version, but it contains details that undermine one of our foundational environmental laws: the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA is a sweeping act that essentially requires federal agencies to evaluate the “social and economic effects of their proposed actions” before they start major development.

The leaked draft indicates that the Trump administration hopes to streamline projects by allowing highway construction to begin “prior to NEPA completion” and redefining what qualifies as a major federal action so that NEPA no longer applies to investments that ring in under $1 billion (aka most projects).

Trump set the stage last summer when he signed an executive order rescinding an Obama-era requirement that federally funded buildings take sea-level rise into consideration.

Time Thwaites for no one

The most important part of the most important ice sheet in the world just got a bit more important this week.

Warm ocean water is already reaching much farther inland to the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers than expected, according to a new analysis. In particular, a deep ice channel that connects the newfound warm water beneath Pine Island glacier to the much larger Thwaites may be in the process of being compromised.

“If this tributary were to retreat and get melted by warm ocean water, it could cause the melt beneath Pine Island to spread to Thwaites,” said lead author Dustin Schroeder, an assistant professor of geophysics at Stanford University.

Thwaites glacier is key to holding back disastrous sea-level rise. As I wrote back in November, Thwaites’ collapse is already inevitable — and it alone holds back enough sea-level rise to drown all coastal cities. The main question, now, is how quickly will this happen? With more bad luck, like this week’s study, as well as rising greenhouse gas emissions — the inevitable just got a little more urgent.

Trickle-Down Economics

New research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association could help pinpoint snow levels in mountain ranges across the Western United States eight months in advance. That’s more certainty of the future than we’re getting from most government agencies these days, so we’ll take it!

“Snowpack” refers to layers of mountain snow that build up during the winter, harden into large masses of frozen water, and then melt in the spring. That melted snow trickles down to feed rivers and streams, bolster municipal water supplies, and supply farmers with a majority of the water they need to grow crops. Eighty percent of snowmelt runoff is used for agriculture.

A lack of snowpack, furthermore, is a big cause of wildfires and drought. Declining snowpack levels in Western mountain ranges in recent years contributed to 2017’s unprecedented drought and wildfire season.

Now, scientists at NOAA think they can help farmers and water managers in the West by predicting where water resources are most likely to accumulate and how much snowmelt can be expected.

This summer, researchers will already be working on snowpack predictions for March 2019 across the western U.S. — with the exception of the southern Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, where random storms make predictions difficult.

Sneaky Peak

Back when oil prices were high, people were talking a lot about peak oil supply — the possibility that we’d run out of new sources of crude oil eventually. But now people are talking about peak oil demand — the possibility that we’ll just stop using the stuff as we come up with better options.

Most recently, analysts from Bank of America and Merrill Lynch have predicted that oil consumption will peak by 2030, as electric vehicles become dominant. The (simplified) argument: Right now, batteries make electric vehicles relatively expensive. As battery prices fall, EVs will turn into a bargain and people will start buying them en masse. If 40 percent of new car sales are EVs by 2030, that would be enough to send our oil habit into decline.

Most oil companies are planning on demand peaking later — like 2040, 2050, or not at all (see ExxonMobil and Chevron). But Royal Dutch Shell is preparing for peak oil in as little as 10 years.

  Thinking about buying the new iPhone? Watch our video on how to repair your old phone instead:

[rainiervolunteersnps]

Hello, Volunteers, and welcome to another great year of service at Mount Rainier National Park! Here's a quick round-up of what's been happening, and what's coming up. There's a lot to put on your calendars!

Over the winter, Nordic Patrol and Interpretive Operations Volunteers kept things humming up at Paradise. Thank you to everyone who contributed!

April saw volunteers at the Spring Fair in Puyallup. Adopt-a-Highway volunteers collected loads of trash along the highway leading into the park, while the Mount Rainier National Park Associates kicked off the trail maintenance season working on the old Mine Trail at Carbon River.

MAY 13: VOLUNTEER BRUNCH

Coming up in a week and a half is the annual Volunteer Brunch, hosted again by the Tacoma Mountaineers at their clubhouse at 2302 N. 30th St. in Tacoma. Join us at 9:30 a.m. for a potluck brunch and learn about what's been happening at the park, what's coming up, and how you can participate as a volunteer. All are welcome!

Also in May, our seasonal staff returns. Maureen McLean will be back managing Meadow Rovers, Jim Ross will be back leading outreach, Kosette Isakson will join us as our new Centennial Volunteer Ambassador for the summer, and we're still working on nailing down Longmire Campground Managers and Sunrise Meadow Rover Managers. If you're interested in either of the last two positions, let me know.

May 20: Mount Rainier National Park Associates Trail Work

MRNPA will be back out on the trails somewhere in May, though the location of their project has not yet been determined. Visit mrnpa.org to sign up and get on the mailing list.

May 30: Interpretive Training

Interpretive Training will begin immediately after Memorial Day and continue for two weeks. As in the past, volunteers will be welcome on some of the days of training, contingent on space in the Community Building. Watch this volunteer blog in the next few days for details, a draft schedule, and information about how to sign up.

June 3: National Trails Day

The Washington Trails Association will kick of the season with a trail project at a location to be determined, and local geocachers will be back as well to get the Longmire Stewardship Campground up and running. Details National Trails Day will be posted on our blog in the next few days.

June 3 to September 3: WTA Trail Projects every Saturday and Sunday

The Washington Trails Association is back! Every Saturday and Sunday, all summer long, WTA will be leading trail maintenance projects at sites all over the park. To find out where they'll be working next, visit WTA.org and click the "volunteer" tab at the top. Note that projects are typically posted about three weeks in advance; especially in the beginning of the season, it's hard to know where work will be needed until the snow melts. If you don't see anything posted yet for the weekend you're available, never fear -- it will be happening somewhere! Keep checking back for details.

June 10: MeadoWatch Training

The popular MeadoWatch Citizen Science program will conduct its annual training at the Longmire Community Building on the morning of Saturday June 10th. Visit meadowatch.org for details about this project, conducted in partnership with the University of Washington, that tracks information about when flowers bloom and set seed in our high mountain areas.

June 10-11: Meadow Rover Training

On the afternoon of June 10th we'll hold basic Meadow Rover training at the Community Building. Come learn the ropes, or get a refresher. On Sunday the 11th we'll conduct an advanced training, with pro tips for educating park visitors about staying on trails and lots of natural history information. Advanced training is for returning Rovers, or attend the basic training on the 10th and stay for the advanced class. If you'd like to participate and haven't signed up yet, go to https://www.volunteer.gov/results.cfm?ID=5200 to submit an application.

June 17: MRNPA Trail Work

Once more for good measure, the Mount Rainier National Park Associates will be back on the trail! Visit mrnpa.org for details.

To Be Determined: Adopt-a-Highway

Sometime in late June, our intrepid litter pickers will be back out cleaning up the roadsides leading into the park. Contact Petrina_Vecchio [at] partner.nps.gov if you'd like to join our team!

July 1 to September 3: Drop-in Trail Projects at Paradise and Sunrise ever Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

Starting in July, you can help with trail maintenance in two of the most beautiful places in the park simply by showing up on a Friday or weekend day and meeting a trail crew leader at the flagpole in front of the visitor center! Planning a trip? Make it a volunteer vacation. Need some service credit for school? This is a great way to get it! Feeling restless? Do something worthwhile! We'll see you by the flagpole!

July: Citizen Science Season

Starting in July, Citizen Scientists will be out and about, following the snowmelt to survey amphibians, butterflies, and hikers! Check out all of our blog posts about Citizen Science to find out how you can participate!

Much More to Come

The Eatonville 4th of July Parade, Visitor Surveys, MRNPA's "Deveg" day (July 15), the annual Volunteer Picnics (August 11-12), MRNPA's annual campout (August 19), the Washington State Fair (September 1-24), the annual drop-in Revegetation Day (September 9), National Public Lands Day (September 30), and many more events not yet scheduled will give you many opportunities to work with us to protect your National Park and serve its visitors. Follow our blog at RainierVolunteersNPS.tumblr.com (note that this is a new address from last year), our Facebook page at facebook.com/rainiervolunteersnps, or our Google Calendar to keep up with everything that's happening.

Thank you to everyone who made last year a record-breaking year at Mount Rainier during the National Park Service's Centennial year. We look forward to seeing you again, and we look forward to making many new friends as well!

Kevin Bacher Volunteer and Outreach Program Manager 360-569-6567

#newsletter #volunteer opportunities #Volunteer Brunch #WTA #MRNPA #MeadoWatch #Meadow Rover #Citizen Science #Interpretive Training